Officer Jorge Vanegas watched as Parrish Cornejo, 35, of Union City peered into a borough resident’s pickup truck parked on River Road near the Fort Lee border, then pulled on the driver’s side door handle around 11 p.m. Tuesday, Detective Teddy Wetklow said.
The door was locked, so Cornejo continued on – just as backup Officers Mike Colon and Tyler Iafelice arrived.
Questioned by Vanegas, Cornejo said the truck wasn’t his and that he didn’t have permission to go into it, Wetklow said.
Asked why he pulled on the door handle, he told Vanegas that he “does it regularly to see cars are open so that he can lock the doors for the owners,” the detectives said.
Cornejo has previous arrests for robbery, theft and drug and weapons offenses, records show.
Edgewater police charged him with attempted burglary and turned him over to the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office on an active warrant pending a June 10 first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
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